UEFA Champions League group stage by numbers
Friday, December 9, 2011
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With a week to go until the last 16 draw in Nyon, UEFA.com rounds up the various records, feats and landmarks which were achieved during the UEFA Champions League group stage.
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The UEFA Champions League group stage provided excitement in abundance, right down to the last whistle on matchday six. A number of records were broken, landmarks reached and eyebrows raised, as UEFA.com recaps.
0: Three clubs failed to earn a point: Villarreal CF, FC Oţelul Galaţi and GNK Dinamo Zagreb. The other 12 to have lost all six group matches are: MŠK Žilina and FK Partizan (2010/11), Maccabi Haifa FC and Debreceni VSC (2009/10), FC Dynamo Kyiv (2007/08), PFC Levski Sofia (2006/07), SK Rapid Wien (2005/06), RSC Anderlecht (2004/05), FC Spartak Moskva and Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2002/03, first and second group stage respectively), Fenerbahçe SK (2001/02, first group stage) and 1. FC Košice (1997/98).
1: APOEL FC caused a stir when they became the first Cypriot team to reach the last 16. Ivan Jovanović's squad defied expectations by not only emerging from a section containing three recent UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League winners in FC Zenit St Petersburg, FC Porto and FC Shakhtar Donetsk, but by also winning it. Like APOEL, Zenit also qualified in what is their second group stage campaign, while SSC Napoli progressed at the first attempt.
3: Assists provided by FC Barcelona winger Isaac Cuenca in 182 minutes of group stage action. Consider that the 20-year-old did not make his European debut until the closing stages of the holders' 2-0 defeat of FC Viktoria Plzeň on matchday four and the statistic is all the more impressive.
5: Real Madrid CF became the fifth team to win all six games in a UEFA Champions League group stage, after AC Milan (1992/93), Paris Saint-Germain FC (1994/95), Spartak (1995/96) and Barcelona (2002/03, first group stage).
7: Minutes it took Bafétimbi Gomis to score three goals against Dinamo Zagreb in Olympique Lyonnais's 7-1 away win on matchday six and break Mike Newell's 16-year-old record for the fastest hat-trick in the competition. The France striker would add one more, with 20 minutes left, thereby becoming only the seventh player to score four goals in a UEFA Champions League fixture.
10.84: Any latecomers to Mestalla on matchday four would have missed Jonas scoring the second fastest UEFA Champions League goal. The Brazilian international calmly capitalised on a weak clearance from Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno to curl in a welcome confidence boost for Valencia CF as they went on to record a 3-1 Group E triumph.
16: When Ryan Giggs fired past Artur in Manchester United FC's 1-1 draw with SL Benfica in September, not only did he beat the mark he established last term as the oldest UEFA Champions League scorer − now 37 years and 289 days − but the midfielder became the first man to score in 16 separate seasons of the competition.
20: The number of goals scored by Barcelona, matching the record set by United in 1998/99. Madrid found the net 19 times, equalling Barça's total in the 1999/2000 first group stage.
22: Goals conceded by Dinamo Zagreb, more than any other team in UEFA Champions League history. The previous highest goals against total was 19, shared by Žilina (2010/11), Debrecen (2009/10), Dynamo (2007/08) and Ferencvárosi TC in 1995/96.
25: Wayne Rooney reached a significant European landmark on matchday three, with the first of his two penalties against Oţelul taking him to 25 UEFA Champions League efforts – more than any other English player has achieved in the competition.
162: Days until the final at the Fußball Arena München on 19 May 2012.